Idaho Covid Dashboard
Updated again (hopefully for the last time) on 4/16/2022: Covid-19 transmission and positivity rates are low across the state and region. The virus will continue to mutate, so there is always the possibility of a dangerous new strain… Barring something like that, the worst of this pandemic is behind us, and it is reasonable for most people (at least here in the US mountain west) to go back to living like we did before March 2020.
Updated on 10/7/2021: Cases still trending upward, but the medical system is too overwhelmed to provide exact numbers:
Meanwhile, 3,000 Idahoans are dead, hospitals are working under crisis standards of care, and Ada county has rented a refrigerated trailer to store dead bodies because the morgue is full.
That’s the bad news, but the good news is that you can help! At this point in the pandemic, we are pretty sure that covid-19 is mostly transmitted throught air, via aerosols and respiratory droplets. Mechanically, it makes sense that masks would help to prevent the spread, see: Visualizing Speech-Generated Oral Fluid Droplets with Laser Light Scattering from the New England Journal of Medicine.
If you disagree with that proposition, why? You cover your face when you sneeze, right? So masks might plausibly help, but do they, in reality? Not perfectly, but there is a lot of evidence that masking up does help at the population level:
Face Masks: Much More Than You Wanted To Know - Slate Star Codex
If the shortage ends, and wearing a mask is cost-free, I agree with the guidelines from China, Hong Kong, and Japan – consider wearing a mask in high-risk situations like subways or crowded buildings. Wearing masks will not make you invincible, and if you risk compensate even a little it might do more harm than good. Realistically you should be avoiding high-risk situations like subways and crowded buildings as much as you possibly can. But if you have to go in them, yes, most likely a mask will help.
In low-risk situations, like being at home or taking a walk, I mean sure, a mask might make you 0.0001% (or whatever) less likely to get infected. If that’s worth it to you, consider the possibility that you might be freaking out a little too much about this whole pandemic thing. If it’s still worth it, go for it.
The Impact of Community Masking on COVID-19: A Cluster-Randomized Trial in Bangladesh
A randomized-trial of community-level mask promotion in rural Bangladesh during COVID-19 shows that the intervention tripled mask usage and reduced symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, demonstrating that promoting community mask-wearing can improve public health.